The Oakland Raiders shocked everyone when they traded star defensive end Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears on Saturday – even general manager Reggie McKenzie.
“My whole thought process was to get Khalil (signed),” McKenzie told NBC Sports Bay Area. “It was at the end, in the final hour, that it just hit. It hit hard and heavy. It was not a plan to trade him at all.”
A day later, head coach Jon Gruden spoke about Mack, and specifically addressed the reports that while McKenzie wanted to hold on to the team’s best defensive player, Gruden wanted him gone.
“They’re trying to divide us,” Gruden told the media at a news conference Sunday night. “People are trying to divide us: ‘I wanted him gone, he wanted him here.’
“We made a decision as an organization. (Owner) Mark Davis, (director of football administration) Tom Delaney, we all got the information and we made a decision, together. And I’ll just say what (Reggie) said – I read what he said yesterday – it’s a decision that we all came to.”
Mack had been a holdout during the preseason as he sought to become one of the NFL’s highest-paid defenders – a goal he wound up attaining.
After negotiating with Chicago, Mack agreed to a six-year, $141 million extension with the Bears, according to multiple reports. The deal, which averages $23.5 million per season, includes $90 million in guaranteed money and a $60 million signing bonus.
The previous bar was set Friday, when the Los Angeles Rams and defensive tackle Aaron Donald finalized a contract worth $135 million, with $87 million guaranteed.
Gruden said that indeed, when it came to an inability to retain Mack, it came down to money.
“We’re trying to negotiate a contract to keep the player here,” he said. “We would like to have the player stay here. He was under contract. We did not expect this to last as long as it did.
“We’re going to get second-guessed until the cows come home on this. I understand that. But the bottom line is we did do our due diligence, there was a standoff and he got a great contract from the Bears. A great contract.”
Nonetheless, McKenzie insists the Mack impasse doesn’t mean the team won’t pay for talent in the future.
“We will pay top dollar,” McKenzie said. “We couldn’t get around giving Khalil what he wanted. We will pay top dollar to top players.”
In exchange for Mack, the Bears sent a bevy of draft compensation to the Raiders, who parted with Mack and a second-round pick in 2020 as well as a conditional fifth-rounder in the same draft. Oakland gets first-round picks in 2019 and 2020, a third-round pick in 2020 and a sixth-rounder in 2019 from the Bears.
Entering the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, Mack, 27, is due to make $13.85 million this season. He has 40.5 sacks in four NFL seasons while starting all 64 games. He had 10.5 sacks last season.
Mack, selected by Oakland with the fifth pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, had not received any offers from the team since February.